


Attraction Isn't Always Love

by Hereisthere_gg



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: ACTUAL UNDERTALE, Fontscest isn't..., JUST, M/M, No AUs, Unhealthy?? Attraction, Unrequited Love, just read mkay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 19:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9286124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hereisthere_gg/pseuds/Hereisthere_gg
Summary: In which Reader loves Sans but Sans 'loves' Papyrus. Featuring a nerdy reader who is too psychic for their own good, an annoyed Sans, and questionable coping mechanisms.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I see that font and sanscest and sanster has taken over ao3 as well as tumblr, and i’m upset. You can barely find an Undertale fic around here anymore. Why? Why?!
> 
> So I fufilled my need and ‘bashed’ fontscest while i was at it.
> 
> #therealreasonsanslovespapyrus

Frisk knew something was up when they found out Sans remembered the resets. Strangely, their first ‘thought’ was an impression thrust upon their mind- _notlovewrongobsessedaddioctionfarmiliar_ \- that they had to decipher into words that meant something. Which they did with practiced speed.

Sans wasn’t looking at them. “Does Papyrus remember too?” They asked.

His eyelights dimmed slightly. “no,” He gave Frisk a sad smile, with empty sockets. “i wanna keep it that way, too.”

So they never told Papyrus.

But, they noticed how Papyrus would hesitate before giving Sans a kiss, before saying ‘love’, before saying or doing anything that went beyond the brotherly bond.

And you noticed, too. They could tell. The way you stiffened when they showed affection, the way you smiled, less in sympathy, more in a sadness.

You were a little jealous. They knew that, too. You told them.

* * *

Sans gave his brother a look of adoration when Papyrus gave him his plate of spaghetti. He murmured a word in thanks as he grabbed a fork. A bittersweet smile crossed your features before you began eating. Frisk grabbed their fork and ate a forkful in thought.

You put your fork down, and asked to be excused.

“WELL, I DON’T SEE WHY YOU HAVE NOT EATEN MY DELICIOUS SPAGHETTI, HUMAN, BUT OKAY!! I SHALL CHECK ON YOU LATER, TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE HAVING THE MOST RESTFUL OF SLEEPS!!” You are plagued by nightmares every now and then, so Papyrus has made a habit of checking up on you. You nod, lost in thought, and leave the table. Sans dismisses himself, promises he’ll come back, and leaves. Frisk can tell that he’s following you.

________________

  
“kid, why didn’t you at least try to stomach some of Papyrus’ spaghetti?” Sans shut the door behind him, and you groaned.

“Are all skeletons this nosy?”

“not very good and mindin’ our own business, is all.” He shrugged, and closed his eye sockets. “‘least, in my experience with skeletons.”

You snickered. “Papyrus, yourself. With just two, it’s very easy to make generalizations.”

Something invisible tapped against the back of the inside of his skull. “yeah.” He resolves to ignore it. There’s nothing to see, anyway.

You were silent for a moment. “Well, bye!” You chirped, guiding him to the door using slick body language, “I must recharge.”

“what...” he blinked repeatedly. “oh!” he turned back to you, and you stared straight ahead at the wooden door.

“what do you have against me and Papyrus?” His eyelights were empty. My, what a door. The purple that you painted the door takes on a glum shade in the dark, you think.

“What do you mean?” If you aren’t thinking about it, then it’s easier to play stupid.

His teeth look sharper for a second, and your hands twitch in concealed surprise when his eye fades into a threatening blue. “i heard you,” He grits out, “talking to Frisk.” He inhales, more for comfort than anything else, and you smile for the lack of mirth in the atmosphere and the pointless action.

“what’s funny?” Oh, he’s gone. His eye is completely glowing now and his left pinprick is gone. You are officially doomed. Your smile widens to a grin at your thoughts sounding like sport commentator or something. He’s outright glaring at you.

“How does it feel, knowing that i’m the only person ever to frustrate you so?” You mime a microphone, and hold it to him. He glares at it like it offended him, and he lets out a noise of frustration as he slaps it away.

“answer the fucking question!”

“I dun forgot the question.”

He groans and he turns, growling out a muttered, “forget it,” as he leaves.

You snicker to yourself, another bad situation evaded. You can keep him happy for as long as you need to. You outright laugh when you hear him yell.

 

* * *

 

 

They hear the door slam, and a yell of frustration erupts from somewhere. They spin their last fork of spaghetti and swallow, not bothering to chew and let the taste saturate on their tongue.

“THEY DO FRUSTRATE SANS ALOT,” Papyrus comments, slapping seconds onto his plate, “BUT-”

“It’s good for him?” They say. Papyrus nods vigorously.

“I DON’T KNOW HOW, BUT I FEEL THAT IT STRENGTHENS THEIR BOND!!”

   
A few days later, he tries again and comes out victorious.

* * *

 

You think you like Waterfall best. It’s just so pretty, the blue rivers contrasting with the black soil. You’re wiggling your fingers in stream when Sans appears next to you, and you only jump a little.

“Whazzup,” You slur, feeling too lazy to pronounce words properly. He kneels   
next to you.

“remember last Saturday?” He asks you.

“But of course,” You feign being appalled at such a notion. “I had a slight case of indigestion and sat in the bathroom for an hour.”

“karma,” Sans muttered. “but seriously,” He turns to look at you. “what gives?”

“I guess I’m jealous.” There you go. There’s a lump in your throat, you’re having breathing problems, and your hands are shaking as they glide through the stream. Well, aren’t you bad at keeping people happy.

“jealous?” He raises his impossible eyebrows. “sorry, Papyrus isn’t-”

“It’s not-” You groan, raising your wet hands up to pull at your hair. “It’s-you!”

“me?” he stumbles. “‘what-what-”

You sigh, and practice breathing for a second under his confused stutters. Then, you smile and say, “I’ve always liked you. Not completely platonically. I...but when you confessed to Papyrus, I didn’t want to interrupt that. You were happy. You’re happy, I’m happy.” My, the echo flowers were looking especially glow-y today. Maybe they’re trying to listen in on our conversation, you think, mentally chuckling.

“...” Sans is silent. “you’re lying.” He finally says, and he sits so his naked feet dip into the water.

“I am!” You laugh, as if this were a joke. For all you knew, it could be. “I’m so sad and I don’t know what to do! But I will not hurt you. For anything.” The lump in your throat is back, and your eyes burn, but you refuse to cry. Nope. Stop it.

He kicks the water suddenly, and in your direction. You withdraw your arms, but the kick had enough force to splash onto your pants.

You stand, cursing him for abandoning you so suddenly.

* * *

 

Sans didn’t look at you much after that. He kind of avoided you. But because Papyrus liked you, and you literally had nothing better to do than to hang around Papyrus, there was Sans. He didn’t say anything other than what was polite. Which annoyed you.

“Bruh,” You grabbed him by the shoulders the next moment you had at least a second alone, not letting him zip away as usual. Wherever he went, you went. “I demand a conversation.”

“on what?” Ooh, he was just as good as you at playing dumb. You tried to find a way around the regular response, but came up empty.

“You’re avoiding me, Sans.” There. That was good. “Did I upset you? I don’t know what upset you, but whatever it is-”

“no,” he said, eye-lights flickering dimly. “it wasn’t you.”

You blinked once, twice. A blush crept onto your cheeks. Maybe you were getting ahead of ourself, but you didn’t know or care. “Oh, I fucking love you, coward.” You wrapped an arm around his shoulders, grinning.

“how did you-”

“Let us be cowards together!” You blinked, completely dropping you joyous attitude. “Wait, uh, not like that...” Sans was about to interject with something but you subconsciously ignored him. “Are you comfortable with that? Like, joking that we’re-”

He chuckled, and you realized that you loved that sound and wanted to hear it everyday of your life it was so pretty. You giggled almost hysterically alongside him.

“Sure, we can joke.” But his grin fell. You read him in a second.

“You have Papyrus.” You realize that sometime you had dropped your arm. “Yeah.” You tried to ignore the gaping chasm in your gut, your heart, your throat by waggling a finger in his face reproachfully.

“Don’t fucking hide from me, though.”

He grinned and nodded, and gave a lazy salute before teleporting away.

You weren’t a pretty crier.

* * *

 

He sighed, and actually felt like he was breaking as he watched you cry. You liked him. You loved him.

He teleported away for real this time, and tried to ignore the way his soul ached for someone he didn’t...couldn’t want. He has Papyrus. He is happy.

Maybe he can make it better.

* * *

 

Papyrus was more thankful than he could say when Sans stopped giving him so many love struck looks that he couldn’t reciprocate. He didn’t give them as much when you were there anymore, which made him immensely happy, and he decided that he should tell Sans how happy this made him.

“(YN) IS VERY HAPPY,” Papyrus tells him one morning. “I THINK THE AFFECTION MAKES THEM UNCOMFORTABLE!” He hates insinuating that he likes it, which would qualify as a lie.

“yeah...” Sans is silent. Papyrus finds this very strange, but doesn’t comment.

* * *

 

“i saw you crying the other day.”

You gasp, and whirl around, slapping him on reflex. “Holy shit!” You gasp, “Holy shit, are you okay?!” You gasp again, unknowingly beginning to stroke his cheek. “I fucking...sorry!”

“yeah,” he sighed, holding your hand to his cheek. Okay, it was getting a little weird now? He looked kind of...happy, though.

You tried really hard not to grin.

He blinked about three times before pulling his hand away like it was on fire. “sorry, sorry. i, uh,” he clambered for an excuse.

You giggled. “It’s okay,” You said. “It happens.”

“what?” He said. “that doesn’t happen.”

You saw an opportunity. “Of course it does.”

“no it...” He squinted at you. “You’re trying to piss me off.”

“Correct! Johnny, tell him what he’s won!”

He pinched the bridge of his ‘nose’. “ugh. so, i’m sorry i made you cry.”

Wow, that wall! “What’re you talking about?” The paint job is fantastic! Such a solid color...

  
“don’t play dumb with me. i saw.”

“Feisty.”

“i’m sorry okay?” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I just don’t know what to do.”

“Don’t do anything you don’t want to do.” You shrugged.

“but that means that i shouldn’t do anything!”

You nodded. “Well, you have to do something.”

“stop stringing me along. ugh, this is so confusing!”

“Well, don’t strain yourself on my part. Do what you want.” You ran your fingers through your hair. “Be happy.”

“not at your expense.” He flicked his eyes up to you and you were lost in the little white lights. “i care about you.”

You gulped. He was too much. “Yeah, well,” You tore your eyes away. “Never mind me.”

He glared at you in the most fiery and cutest way physically possible. Holy shit. “shut up.”

Well, okay. Grinning, you stopped talking,

“because i care, i’m going to mind you.” His left eye lit into an intriguing blue. “‘because i like you.” be blinked, his eyelights fading out.

You couldn’t help but grin.

‘i..” He looked so confused at himself, before a fiery blue blush spread across his face. “what? not like that!”

You turn from him, crossing your hands behind your back. “I’ve read and watched an absurdly large amount of shoujo in my life. Along with a large amount of regular books.”

“what-are you talking about-”

“I also know more than a thing or two about coping mechanisms.” You look pointedly at him. You pieced together the fact that he remembered the resets that happened before you fell; it was only natural that he could cling to the only constant he remotely loves and run with that love. Only problem was, that love wasn’t true. An attraction formed to cope better, and his subconscious _ran_ with it.

He blinked at you. “I have no idea-”

“You do! Just, you need to think and figure it out. Think about coping mechanisms and go from there. Have a deep, deep conversation with yourself.” You winked at him. “Question everything.”

“what-”

“I have to visit the lou!” Was the first shitty excuse you could come up with. “Adios, amigo!”

* * *

 

The next time he approached you was, what, three days later? You gathered from Papyrus that he was going to Alphys’ place.

Which was good. Anime and science and a nice Alphys to sort your thoughts out is a fantastic fucking idea. Good on him.

“hey.” He said, suddenly appearing in your room. you jmped audibly, still somehow not used to teleportation. “Uhh, yo.” You waved lazily at him from your book. “How is life.”

“weird.”

“Nice.”

“i just realized that i have a seriously unhealthy coping mechanism. this is not nice.”

“Thus is my coping mechanism.”

"what?"

“I’ll explain later.” You sat up and faced him. “We are here to figure this out.”

“I’m here to figure this out.” He pointed at you. “You were here to read a book.”

“Ahh, to wait for you! You have no idea how long i’ve been waiting for this.”

He quirked an eyebrow-thing. “Everyone knows about this except me?”

“Nah, just me and Frisk. Frisk can read minds, you know.”

“they’re a weird little kid.”

You grinned. “Wouldn’t trade them for the world, though.”

“yeah. this is getting off topic.” He sighed and sat on the part of the bed that you patted for him to sit on.

“Now,” You said, trying to sound chipper despite the atmosphere. “What have you realized?”

“that i have an unhealthy attraction to a certain Papyrus.”

“Not exactly unhealthy, but okay.”

“what do you mean, ‘not unhealthy’?”

“Well, it never hurt anyone involved.”

“...” his eye sockets progressively widened. You blinked.

“What. What’s wrong?” You immediately began hovering over him. “What?”

“we had sex.” He stared at you, eyes wide and empty. “we had sex and he wasn’t willing.”

  
You were initially extremely surprised at his words, but the sudden burst of magic that coasted around the room sent you into the air in both senses of the phrase.

You levitated a few inches and stayed there. Sans stood up and began pacing, all the while you floating higher and higher until you hit the ceiling, almost everything in the room going with you. Honestly, the bed will follow at this rate.

“Sans!” You called. “Sans, calm down. It’s okay, Sans, calm down.”

Your words had little effect. “ **i raped Papyrus**.” He looked up at you, eye blue and blurry somehow. “ _ **i r a p e d p a p y r u s**_.”

You were about to sooth his worries in a reflectively anime way, the blue magic surrounding everything faded abruptly, and you found yourdelf plummeting to the ground.

_**-5** _

He winced. You groaned, holding your face. “Dude, take a chill pill for like five seconds and think, okay?” You honestly were kind of tired of this anime-like ‘storyline’. “You didn’t rape him if he was willing, dummy. I don’t think anyone can force Papyrus to do anything.”

Sans gazed at you with wide eyes. “...” He blinked owlishly, and you couldn’t suppress a smile.

“...i guess not-”

“HUMAN!” Papyrus burst through the door, complete with his usual enthusiasm. Sans jumped, eye sockets somehow wider than before? It puzzled you, how his ‘bone’ was so malleable.

“Yeah?” You answered tiredly. “Look,” and you made a sound that could only be described as “nvm”. “just help your brother out, and help him figure out just what the hell happened between you bros...” You let your face fall onto the carpet. “Your big bro’s confused, Pappy...”

“WHAT?” Papyrus looked like a deer in headlights, and you once again wondered what the fuck these skeletons were made of, if not bone. Oh, magic. Duh. “HUMAN, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??!!”

“Sans here figured out the whole dynamic thing that you two have going on, one has an attraction, one does it just to make to other happy, blah, blah...” You just wanted them to figure it out, no matter if all the bad outcomes you’ve been suspecting came about. You were just tired of doing all the work for them.

“W-W-W-WELL,” Papyrus tried to quell his confusion and utter panic by attempting to reign in the conversation. Sans only glared at you, which you could deal with by taking a small nap.

“papyrus,” Sans looked his brother square in the eye sockets. “have i been...forcing you?”

“UHH...” Papyrus looked anywhere but his brother, before settling on his sockets as well. “NO?? I JUST WANTED YOU TO BE HAPPY. SO I WENT ALONG WITH IT.”

“why?” Sans’ voice held all the confusion in the world.

It seems that you weren’t getting any sleep. “Oh, my gosh, Sans. This is love. This is what siblings do for each other, they self-sacrifice to help a bro out, I have siblings, I know what it’s like,” You muttered something about lost bags of potato chips. “Papyrus was just being an awesome bro, as usual, and you took it the wrong way, which is exactly what he wanted. He pretended to reprocriate your feelings to make you happy. And your feelings was just anchoring yourself to the only constant thing you cared about, because resets can do a lot to a bro, and this this all started as a result of a coping mechanism.” You huffed out a breath. “No ill will. Gosh, guys, this isn’t that hard. Sorry for seeming rude, but this was just dragging on too long.”

Sans blinked at you. Papyrus blinked at you. They both blinked at each other, and you laughed as they gave each other helpless looks in sync.

“UHM, I’M SORRY?” Papyrus shrugged. “I JUST...THIS IS ALL SO CONFUSING!!”

“yeah, bro.” Sans scratched the back of his skull. “and if anyone should be sorry, it’s me. it’s my fault this all started.’

“NO!” Papyrus looked offended at the very idea. “IT ISN’T!! IT’S THE..THE ‘RESETS’ OR WHATEVER’S FAULT!!”

Sans grinned. “yeah, yeah. sure, i’ll go with that.”

“EXCELLENT!!” Papyrus grinned as well, and you found them contagious, as you were grinning too. “NOW, I ORIGINALLY CAME UP HERE TO ALERT YOU THAT LUNCH IS READY.”

“Nice,” You grumbled.Sans directed his grin at you. “maybe if you finish this time papyrus will let you go to grillby’s.”

Papyrus grumbled. “IF IT SATISFIES THE HUMAN...AND MY BROTHER, THEN FINE!! BUT DON’T EXPECT ANY OF MY WONDERFUL SPAGHETI FOR DINNER!!”

Sans laughed. “aw, bro. i was looking forward to dinner.”

“IT SEEMS THAT YOU HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS, MY DEAR BROTHER!! I’M AFFRONTED THAT YOU WOULD OFFEND MY COOKING IN SUCH A WAY!!”

“but, bro,”

“WHAT-”

“are you calling me an,” Sans’ grin widened, and you laughed, preparing for a pun. “impasta?”

“ _ **SANS**_ -” You laughed at his rage. Laughing, Sans saluted and teleported away. “S _ **ANS, I WILL GET YOU ONE DAY**_.”

Papyrus yelled more threats, stomping out of the room. You laughed even after he eft, because you realized that you fixed it. No one was unhappy, Papyrus was comfortable around his brother, and you had a chance with Sans.

Frisk popped their head into the room. “I trust that everything ended up happy?” That signed. You smiled at them. “OF course, kiddo!”

Smiling, they nodded. Everything was okay. They knew it would be.

 

**Author's Note:**

> THIS TOOK ME OVER A MONTH TO WRITE BECAUSE I WAS WRITING IT IN SPARE MOMENTS LIKE DURING COMMERICALS AND SHIT, SO IT TOOK FOEVER. I’M SO HAPPY I FINALLY FINISHED


End file.
